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[zradick]

The demo is ready for download for the competition!!
http://www.trackzgame.com/downloads/ApplesAndOranges-v0.00.01.zip

The game is a multi-modal matching game that allows matches to be made by color, letter (the first letter of the word), and type (e.g. "Bird", "Vegetable", "Halloween").

There are four game types with their own high scores:
1. Simple : match stuff, time drains faster the more you match
2. Balance : try to keep balance between matching colors, letters, and types
3. Sets : match the given sets (e.g. 1 color, 2 letters, 1 type) to progress to the next level
4. Combo Freeplay : set up combos and let them fly with no time-limit.  Score is based on the biggest combo for a single move!

Note: Gold is not the same as Yellow, but they look very similar (the butterscotch is very similar to the Gold Coin).

The game is desperately lacking tutorials, help, and options (for sound volume, graphics settings, etc), but is playable as a demo.  When I can bring myself back to it (I wore myself out a bit with this compo back to back with my entry for the PAX-10) there will be more features added including: Help, Options, better UI for High Scores and Menus, Music (just end it all now), more things to match and super secret special matches!  The code for all of it is there, but I need to produce more art and sound assets...

Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Cheers,
Zack

Actual gameplay image (Gasp)!


--Original post--

• The most realistics physics engine ever created!
• Photorealistic graphics!
• Cunning and opportunistic enemy AI!
• Fast paced combat utilizing advanced damage modeling and weapon ballistics!

None of these things have anything to do with the kind of games I make.

Apples and Oranges is a... wait for it... matching game!
The difference between A and O and other matching games is that it matches based on multiple categories.  For example: apples, oranges and bananas are all fruits and would be a match!  A green apple, green snake, and a head of lettuce are all green, so that would be a match too!  Additionally an apple, an aardvark, and an astronaut would be a match because they all start with the letter "A".

The entire thing is being written purely in Java.  All art assets are being generated from scratch for this project.

The contents of the levels are Procedurally Generated.

Below is an early screenshot showing the basic style of the game board and pieces.



With any luck I will have time to implement some of the "secret" matches and special items that can be obtained and activated...   

[increpare]

• The most realistics physics engine ever created!
• Photorealistic graphics!
• Cunning and opportunistic enemy AI!
• Fast paced combat utilizing advanced damage modeling and weapon ballistics!

None of these things have anything to do with the kind of games I make.

Apples and Oranges is a... wait for it... matching game!
The difference between A and O and other matching games is that it matches based on multiple categories.  For example: apples, oranges and bananas are all fruits and would be a match!  A green apple, green snake, and a head of lettuce are all green, so that would be a match too!  Additionally an apple, an aardvark, and an astronaut would be a match because they all start with the letter "A".

Ah; I like this idea: encourages a lot more lateral thinking

I imagine that to get a level where there is only one unique way of matching all the various pairs up would be rather difficult.

[zradick]

Ah; I like this idea: encourages a lot more lateral thinking

I imagine that to get a level where there is only one unique way of matching all the various pairs up would be rather difficult.

Thanks!  I have code that guarantees that there is at least one match available, but it could be of any type.  It will get tougher as I add more items to be matched.  I think I only have 20 or so made right now.  Enough to test, but not enough for the final product.

[dustin]

just java?  So your not using any c bindings to do the graphics or anything?  Just wondering as I also code in java but use slick (lwjgl extension) to do graphics.

[zradick]

just java?  So your not using any c bindings to do the graphics or anything?  Just wondering as I also code in java but use slick (lwjgl extension) to do graphics.

Yep, just Java.  I'm using the Java2D package for all my rendering.  The UI is all my own custom code.  I get a native window with Swing (JFrame) and then turn off all it's native re-draw stuff and start a render loop on it.

I decided at some point that 2D was as far as I was going to try to go as a solo developer, so the Java2D package works for me and it is native to the JVM so I don't have to bundle any libs.  In fact I try to write everything to use strictly the JVM so that I can reduce size and increase compatibility.

Java2D got a nice boost with 1.6 and now supports OpenGL (it crashes on Win32 machines periodically -- usually right at startup if it's going to) and D3D with translucent image blending and other stuff.  It's definitely sufficient for the reasonably non-sophisticated games I make.   

[William Broom]

This looks awesome. A very original and unusual use of PCG.

[zradick]

This looks awesome. A very original and unusual use of PCG.

I wouldn't expect it to be unusual, as I assume almost all matching style games use PCG content, but I am hopeful that it will be different enough to distinguish itself.  We shall see.

Everyone has their own personal preferences.  I like puzzles, so that's often the kind of game I work on.  I've played a lot of matching style games, but mostly they are all simplistic color matching, which is fairly limited (while I would love to work on a Puzzle Quest 2 style game, there was no time for something of that nature in 4 weeks and it would not really be original).  So this is a slightly revised take on an old concept to see if multi-modal matching is actually entertaining or just a fanciful idea.  Again, TBD.

Cheers,
--Zack

[Pip]

This sounds great, but I'm not certain of the goal. Will each level have a defined sorting system (ie, colour, alphabet, fruit) that the player has to find out through trial and error?

[zradick]

This sounds great, but I'm not certain of the goal. Will each level have a defined sorting system (ie, colour, alphabet, fruit) that the player has to find out through trial and error?

I'm still working on the rules system, but I'm thinking it will be something along the lines of a gradually decreasing amount of time that is refilled by making matches (as you progress the amount of time allowed to make matches would be reduced).  You would get a small amount of time refilled for matching 3 items, a bit more for 4, and more still for 5 (plus combo multipliers and that sort of thing).  I'm also hoping to put in lots of "secret" matches that would do special things.  I'm not sure how far all this will get in time for the competition, but if I'm still having fun with it I'll keep going until I'm "done" with it.

[Pip]

Is there a "man" item and a "baby" item? Cos if so, you're all set.

[increpare]

It would be nice to have the various possible relationship-types categorised (say, "Spelling-based relationships" vs. "meaning-based relationships" vs "graphical relationships") so you could see how well you did in each at the end of a stage.  Also: a scoring system that encouraged you to use as many different categories of relationships as possible might be quite cool.

Or what about a stage where the number of matches of each relationships-category was limited? (say, you were able to matc 5 pairs based on starting letter, two pairs based on rhyme, and 6 pairs based on colour, &c.).

waffle waffle waffle

[zradick]

It would be nice to have the various possible relationship-types categorised (say, "Spelling-based relationships" vs. "meaning-based relationships" vs "graphical relationships") so you could see how well you did in each at the end of a stage.  Also: a scoring system that encouraged you to use as many different categories of relationships as possible might be quite cool.

Or what about a stage where the number of matches of each relationships-category was limited? (say, you were able to matc 5 pairs based on starting letter, two pairs based on rhyme, and 6 pairs based on colour, &c.).

waffle waffle waffle

I like that idea...  The bit about making you have to get a certain number of a given type of match within a level is particularly interesting to me.  Hmmmm....

I had already made plans on setting multipliers for multiple category matches (e.g. 2x the points if you matched all green vegetables or something of that nature).  I'm trying to decide how that scoring system is going to work at this point, but I'm definitely aiming for rewarding multiple matching categories.

Thanks for the feedback!

Cheers,
--Zack

[William Broom]

The more I hear the more I want this. Best matching game evar.

[zradick]

The more I hear the more I want this. Best matching game evar.

Thanks, I'm hoping it won't be total suckage myself.  Mother's day ate half of my weekend dev time and I usually only manage a few hours in the evening before my brain is suitably burnt-out and incapable of doing further programming, but I'm making progress...

I started making my own game font and then stopped and kicked myself for getting too hung up on the little things...  First, scoring and gameplay...  Then pretty fonts.

[zradick]

Current in-game screenshot...



More items!
More matching!
More madness!

Cheers,
--Zack